What's eating my plants?

PassTheFox · 25 February

Hi Gardeners, looking to draw on your collective wisdom to understand what's happening in my garden.

I have a few plants that seem to be being eaten. Please can you help with what it might be and any steps I should take to minimise the issue/prevent further spread to other plants?

Skimmia: last autumn a section of the shrub died off. The rest of the plant seems fine but not sure why this would happen to one part.
Rhododendron: in the same bed as the skimmia. Planted in spring, fine through summer/autumn. In Jan I noticed part of the plant had died like on the skimmia. The last few weeks I've noticed the leaves are being stripped by something. I had a similar problem on a rose in the front garden towards the end of last summer. The skimmia and Rhod are both in the back garden but wondering if its the same thing
My spring bulbs are also being munched by something. Its happening in both the front and back gardens. Mainly the daffodils but really seems like whatever it is will eat anything!
I put in a few new perennial plants last spring and they also seem to be being eaten by something. I've attached a photo of the brunnera as an example. The more mature perennials seem to have been left alone so far

I've added some pics that I hope will help. I think the bulbs and perennials might be slugs - I've had a lot of trouble with them before! I'm more concerned about the stripped leaves and if that's a serious issue or just a result of the climate right now.

I'm based in Yorkshire and have heavy clay soil which for the last 5 years we've annually added a thick layer of manure. I would describe the typical weather since November as being wetter and milder than usual.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/ef/h9jn18rici9k.jpg

Busy-Lizzie · 25 February

Bumping this up.

The bulbs look like slugs but I don't know about the shrubs.

PassTheFox · 26 February

Thanks @Busy-Lizzie!!

Looking on RHS and Gardeners World last night, I'm wondering if it could be sawfly? I've never seen a whole section of plant die off like that whilst the rest stays fine

Fairygirl · 26 February

There looks to be some vine weevil damage on the rhodo @PassTheFox , but it doesn't look very healthy anyway. The variegated ones can be a bit less tough than the plain ones. Difficult to be accurate when we can only see a small part of the shrub too. There could also be leaf cutter bee damage on the foliage, but it can often look like slug damage too. I don't get any of that on rhodos, but we don't really get the leaf cutter bees. We do get a bit of vine weevil damage, but it's not usually terminal if the plant is otherwise healthy. If the soil is clay, that's fine unless it's not got adequate drainage. They love loads of rain, but they don't appreciate sitting in waterlogged soil long term.
With the skimmia - has something been shading part of that? I don't see anything else wrong with it though. I'm not aware of sawfly doing that to skimmas, but again - it may simply be that we aren't affected here.

Yes - slugs for the others, unless you have rabbits or similar as well. They'll have a go at anything.

GardenerSuze · 26 February

@PassTheFox Are the evergreens new and recently planted? Any new plant is vulnerable. If they had been growing under glass and then planted in a windy spot that could cause broken branches.

What's eating my plants?

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